Mother of Three Jailed - Leaves Children Unattended to Attend Springer Show

WHEATON, Il. - Shannon Cook, 25, was sentenced to 30-days in jail this week for misdemeanor child endangerment. Cook, the mother of three children under 4-years old, left her children at home unattended so she could attend the Jerry Springer Show.

In addition to the jail sentence, she received one year on probation. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services have taken custody of the children and placed them in foster care. The offense occurred on October 19th.

According to police, Cook, accompanied by her boyfriend, left the children alone while they drove to Chicago to attend the show. The two oldest children knocked on a neighbor's door hours later. Police waited and arrested Cook upon her return home.

This is my last story. Hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I did finding and summarizing them. I have a low tolerance for stupidity and as Lurker can attest, this web site is chock full of morons. There are just far more productive ways to spend my free time.

-Chair out of nowhere smashes some random loser on strange in the back of the head-

Audience- "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, Jerry"

Seriously, those kids are better off with a better family who cares about them. What the hell is wrong with people today? You don't leave your kids to go so a friggen Jerry Springer taping...jeez! You don't leave them at all! Thats what so wrong with some families and people today!

most people now know you can't leave your kids alone for any reason, any time. This stuff only happens in rare instances, and usually the parents have a history of doing something that would warrent this neglect.

After this sentence, and this embarassment, she'll start either being Mother of the Year, or get her kids taken away. More than likely, if the State thought of the latter, they would have done it earlier...(IL is strong on taking kids from neglict families)

I really do not think that a greater sentence will matter. It's likely that this woman is just irresponsible and inept, and I do not see what giving such a thoughtless woman time to think will do. There is something to be said for punishment, of course, but I think just having the consequences catch up with her once will have an effect. I certainly see no reason to have her drawing tax dollars in prison for a whole year.

As far as no longer submitting, I just do not understand why you would stop submitting but continue commenting. Commenting, from what I've seen, is where the fireworks come from, especially in your case where you've submitted a lot of news and had none blocked. That tells me that your submissions should be relatively free from flame. So, why you'd choose the more unpleasant participation activity is what baffles me.

I wholeheartedly disagree that this sort of thing happens once every blue moon. Children are being left on their own without supervision somewhere every single day. Most of the time of course it won't get reported because the children simply stay in the house until the mother or father get back. Plus, this one most probably only got media attention because of the irony of the woman going out to watch the Springer Show.

Yeah but 4 year olds (and younger???) Thats not right..maybe starting at 8..but even this day and age with all the crooks, peadofiles, etc...man, when I have kids i'm keeping them in padded armor and fending off others with a shotgun already!